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A teammate criticizes Josh Hamilton and a take on Showalter vs. Melvin

One teammate openly criticizing another. Especially one that batted .285 with 43 homers, 128 RBIs and an OPS of .930. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers is a finalist for the AL's Most Valuable Player award with those numbers, but Rangers relief pitcher Mike Adams didn't sound like a huge Hamilton fan yesterday.

In an interview on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Adams said, "Sometimes Josh is hard to figure out," and, when asked about Texas trying to re-sign the free agent outfielder, he said, "I'm not sure if it's in the best interest of the Texas Rangers or not."

Surprising comments from Adams, and you have to wonder if other clubs, like the Orioles, that could have interest in the outfielder are listening.

Jon Morosi of FOXSports.com wrote a story yesterday saying that the Orioles plan to pursue Hamilton for left field. Here we go again, with the Orioles linked to another top free agent. We'll see where, if anywhere, this goes from here.

ESPN's Buster Olney said this last night via Twitter about Hamilton: "Lots of club executives concerned about perceived risk with Hamilton. It'd be interesting to know how extensive background checks are w/him."

Former big league general manager Jim Bowden projected that Hamilton will get a five-year contract with a club option for about $115 million. If that turns out to be the price, maybe the Orioles actually could play in that ballpark.

Maybe Dan Duquette will stun some of us and be a real player for Hamilton. Hamilton, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis would be a top outfield. O's fans can dream, but for now, I remain very skeptical about this.

Meanwhile, it was no surprise at all, of course, that Buck Showalter was named an American League Manager of the Year finalist yesterday. The other two finalists for the award, which will be announced next Tuesday, are Oakland's Bob Melvin and Chicago's Robin Ventura.

This looks like one close race between Showalter and Melvin. While Buck engineered a 24-win turnaround to 93 wins for the Orioles, Melvin took the A's from 74 to 94 wins. Oakland had the best record in the majors from July 1 on, going 57-26.

Some might give Melvin a slight edge over Buck because the A's stormed back to win the AL West in a year where that division was very strong.

Buck might gain an edge because of the constant patchwork nature of the O's rotation, which featured just one 10-game winner and an offense with no one producing more than 85 RBIs. The O's pitching went from worst to sixth in the AL.

While Oakland had a great year, the A's pitching staff ranked third in the AL in ERA in 2011 and the A's added a premium bat in Yoenis Cespedes this year.

Don't hate on me O's fans, I would vote for Buck, but I predict that, in the end, he gets edged out for this award by Melvin.

What is your take?: Are there reasons for the Orioles to have concerns about pursuing Josh Hamilton? What will be deciding factors in the Manager of the Year race between Showalter and Melvin?

Watch this: The Glad You Came video, a thank you from the Orioles players to their fans that was shown on the Jumbotron video board late in the season, is now finally and officially online. Click here to watch.